


to feel pretty, to hide your insecurities

by KirstieJ



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Headcanon, Makeup, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 20:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7402888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirstieJ/pseuds/KirstieJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack Zimmerman already has a ton of secrets. He's unsure why he's adding yet another one to the list, yet here he is. With Lardo's help, he tries out something he's been wanting to do but never had the courage to try.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to feel pretty, to hide your insecurities

**Author's Note:**

> just a cute friendship fic between Lardo and Jack, doing something I headcanon Jack would like to do. I might add on to this theme eventually, who knows? (i would like to include Bitty because i love Bitty but he is not here in this specific story, sorry friends)

An indie playlist was blaring as Jack entered the room, one hand stuffed in his pocket. His fingers gripped his cellphone tightly.  

“Hey,” he was greeted by Larissa, who was leaning back in her chair in front of her desk. The music was, presumably, coming from her laptop. It was sitting next to a variety of items, a desk mirror, and lamp.

“Hey,” Jack said back, glancing at Lardo’s desk, noting what was spread out on top of it.

“I stole an extra chair from the closet on the first floor. It’s a little broken, but it should work,” Lardo gestured to the chair she was explaining. Jack looked at it, then took a seat.

“You ready?”

“Yep,” Lardo nodded. “Stuff is clean and laid out, and a basic layer has been applied.” Lardo made a circular motion in front of her face, gesturing.

“I can’t promise this is going to be good. It might not even be decent, really. It could look like a five year old’s handiwork,” Jack warned her, taking a look at all the tools and items on the desk. He recognized a bunch of things from videos and research he’d done, but he’d never had the chance to use most of them. Last time, Lardo showed him how she used the tools and he got the chance to practice, a bit. This was different, though.

“Have some faith in yourself. What you did last time looked good, didn’t it?”

“I had your help,” Jack stated simply.

“I could try to help a bit this time, too. But I’m not even that great at it myself, so don’t be hard on yourself.” Jack snorted a little and Lardo gave a barely noticeable sigh. Asking Jack Zimmerman not to be hard on himself was a tall order, she’d come to realize after two years of knowing him.

“Okay,” Jack breathed. “Well, eyes, then? I’m not going to try to touch contouring or anything like that, not yet. Just eyes, maybe lips.”

“Sounds good, bro.”

“If it looks like shit, I’m sorry,” Jack grimaced as he picked out the first brush, a relatively small, flat, and dense one. It would be good for covering the entire lid in a base colour.

“It won’t. And, dude, if it looked bad I’d just wash it off. Lord knows I’ve spent forty minutes on a look only to wipe it off and forget about leaving the house.”

Jack’s grimace deepened and Lardo clicked her tongue. That was supposed to be comforting.

“Is that what you’re wearing?” Jack asked her, leaning back to look at her in full. She had on a blank top and some grey sweats that were just a bit too big for her.

“Oh, nah. That romper,” Lardo nodded toward her bed, where a simple brown romper with some olive and black beads along the neck was laid out. “With the black belt next to it. Probably flats, and maybe a black cardigan.”

“Okay,” Jack nodded. He glanced at the colours of eyeshadow, and picked a light brown colour to start off. He applied that to the lid, then picked a colour a few shades darker for the crease. He found a blending brush on the table and merged the two colours, making it more of a gradient. As well, he took a lighter colour and dusted it below Lardo’s brow. Next, he hmmed, and grabbed a small, thin brush. He found some dark green eyeshadow, and lined Lardo’s eye with that. It was subtle, but it was a nice pop of colour, and he thought it would go well enough with the earthy tones of Lardo’s outfit. He grabbed the black liquid liner, and carefully gave Lardo a somewhat thin line and with a short wing. He didn’t want to get too risky with that quite yet, he knew it wasn’t easy to accomplish. He paused, then grabbed the mirror. “Look at the first eye and tell me if you want me to keep up with this.”

Lardo blinked open her eyes and looked into the mirror. “Oooh. I like it. Yeah, keep going.” She gave him an honest smile and Jack nodded, feeling relieved. He put down the mirror and Lardo shut her eyes again.

Jack slowly, and carefully, repeated the same process on the other eye. He figured next time he would do both eyes at the same time, one stage at a time. It might be easier to keep them both the same, and the brushes wouldn’t get different colours mixed into them. Still, it wasn’t a huge deal to do it this way.

He finished up the second eye, humming to himself. “You can open up, it’s finished.”

“Sweet,” Lardo opened her eyes. “Anything for the lips?”

Jack looked at the array of lipsticks, less option than the eyeshadows. He picked out a nude with a hint of rosiness to it. It wouldn’t draw attention.

“Here. Do you wanna put it on yourself?” he asked.

“Nope. That’s your job,” Lardo told him. He nodded, then uncapped the tube. He put a finger on Lardo’s chin, angling her face upwards, and delicately applied the colour to her lips.

“There,” Jack said, handing her a tissue so she could press her lips together and get rid of the excess.

As Lardo did that, he grabbed the mirror. “If it’s all good, I can finish with some clear powder.”

Lardo took the mirror, and looked at herself. Her lips slowly formed a grin as she looked over the edge of the mirror at Jack, noting his bated breath. He silently quirked his eyebrow at her.

“It looks great, Jack. I’d never guess this was your first time flying solo on a look.”

“Yeah? I, uh, watched a lot of tutorials the past couple days.”

“I love it. Thank you. Powder me, bro,” she shut her eyes again as Jack picked up the powder and a bigger brush, dusting it over her face.

“Done,” Jack informed her. She gave him a brilliant smile as she opened her eyes again. “Thanks, for this,” he added quietly.

“No way, man, I should be thanking you. Part of the reason I don’t bother wearing makeup much is because I’m so lazy with it, it’s nice to have somebody else do it for me.”

“Yeah,” Jack shrugged. “Still. You’re keeping a secret for me.”

“That’s okay. I mean, as Shitty said, I don’t think you should have to, but I understand where your discomfort comes from. Just know we accept you for who you are. And, if anyone were to find out and have a problem with the fact you’re wicked at makeup, I’d personally break their face so bad no makeup would be able to help it.”

Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Thanks, Larissa. I mean it.”

“I know you do. Thank _you_ Jack. For the makeup, and for the trust.”

“Anytime,” Jack said. “Well. I’m gonna run. See you later.”

“See you,” Larissa smiled as he walked out of her door.


End file.
